


Our Hands Against Our Hearts

by treez_r_green



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bastardizing Shakespeare, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Football, Hate to Love, M/M, Matchmaking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-15
Updated: 2015-06-15
Packaged: 2018-04-02 13:51:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4062376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/treez_r_green/pseuds/treez_r_green
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a unforeseen pitch closure forces Louis and his ragtag bunch of amateur players to re-join the team that he'd walked out on, Louis has to deal with playing alongside his 'arch-nemesis' Liam once more. When the rest of the team decide they've had enough of their bickering, they hatch a plot to reconcile the two. Can they put aside their differences for the love of the game, and will romance blossom on the field?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Our Hands Against Our Hearts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lexiloves16](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lexiloves16/gifts).



> A Much Ado About Nothing meets football AU. 
> 
> Here's where I have to give a huge thank you to my beta, who, as well as making this story ten times better, convinced me it wasn't ridiculous to mix these two things together and told me I wasn't an idiot for writing a football AU with a limited knowledge of the game.

Louis stood with his hands on his hips as he surveyed the scene before him. What used to be a smooth football pitch was now a large mess made up of various mounds of raised earth surrounded by little remaining grass, all cordoned off with red and white tape topped with a cheerful ‘CAUTION: Do Not Enter’ sign. Louis heard the rabble behind him die down as the rest of his team caught up to him and saw what he was seeing.

“Er, mate, what’s going on?” one of the lads asked, finally saying what everyone else was thinking.

Louis didn’t have to see the face in order to recognise the speaker, the accent narrowing it down to Ashton, Michael or Callum, the three Aussies that had only recently joined the team. Louis ran through the possible responses in his head and he could feel Harry twitching nervously beside him, as if he knew that Louis could explode at any given moment.

Just when Louis had worked himself up to a particularly biting sarcastic remark, the door to the community centre building beside them was flung open, and Paul the site manager came striding out, pen tucked behind his ear and looking very business official, save for the half eaten bacon sandwich grasped in his meaty paw, tomato sauce oozing out and dripping down his fingers. Paul spotted the ragtag bunch of lads immediately, the group mostly in their twenties and wearing mismatched football gear, staring forlornly at what used to be their practise pitch.

“Alright lads. Sorry about all this, Janice was meant to phone yer Lou, but she took the week off cos of her daughter having a baby. Here, I can show you a picture if you like.”

He stuck the hand not holding the bacon sandwich into the back pocket of his trousers, produced his phone and began scrolling through to look for the pictures. Louis could feel his temperature rising once more and Harry twitched beside him again, though Louis wasn’t sure if this time was because he was nervous about Louis’ reaction or excited about getting to see pictures of a baby. Paul was oblivious, showing them the pictures of Janice’s grandchild, which none of the lads cared about save for Harry, who had practically clawed Paul’s arm off to look at the phone and was cooing ridiculously at all the photos.

Just as a growl started to form in the back of Louis’ throat, Zayn, lovely, rational Zayn, stepped in.

“Yeah, she’s proper beautiful mate, but we was just wondering: what’s going on with the pitch, like?”

Bless Zayn, Louis was never benching him again, no matter how many times he stopped in the middle of a game to fix his hair.

“Oh right, yeah, the pitch,” Paul said, looking up from his phone.

He tried to ease it gently from Harry’s iron grip, presumably to put it back in his pocket, but Harry was both stronger than he looked and impossible to distract once a baby was involved, so Paul relinquished his grip and forfeited the phone and photos to Harry with only a mild look of confusion which Louis gave him credit for.

“Sorry boys but the pitch is out of commission for the whole summer. Moles.”

“Moles!?” Louis couldn’t believe that was the first word he’d said in this whole sorry fiasco.

“Yeah,” Zayn said, “they burrow under the ground and make molehills, I heard of other clubs that have had this problem. You know people think they’re blind, like, but they’re not really, they just have very poor eyesight.” Louis stared at Zayn with raised eyebrows. To his credit, Zayn did stop talking but he could have at least had the courtesy to look chastised, instead of just smirking.

“Thank you, Dr Doolittle.” Louis immediately regretted thinking of Zayn as ‘lovely’. He wasn’t lovely at all; he was a total menace and Louis was going to have a meltdown. He felt like he was trapped in some weird nightmare, where everyone was speaking the same language except for him and everyone was acting like all this lunacy was normal.

“Well, you asked what moles are so...”

“I know what moles are Zayn! I just don’t understand what they are doing here! On our football pitch!” Apparently the pitch of Louis’ voice had raised sufficiently enough that Harry abandoned the baby photos to come to Louis’ side, obviously sensing that Louis might spontaneously combust at any given moment and wanting to be there for damage control, which was Harry’s forte.

He heard various mutterings of disbelief behind him.

“What are we going to do now? We’ve got that match with those posh college wankers in two weeks.” He heard Callum or possibly Michael say, one of the Aussies anyway. Harry knew which one was which so Louis didn’t have to bother most of the time.

“I know that! Don’t you think I know that…” Louis trailed off when he saw Harry’s puppy dog expression. He couldn’t shout at one of the newbies, not with Harry looking at him like he was disappointed.

Louis sighed and ran his hand down his face. Everyone was looking to him for a decision but he was not cut out for this leadership malarkey.

A tentative hand suddenly shot up at the back of the crowd.

“Um, yes..er..”

“Ashton,” whispered Harry beside him. Thank God for Harry.

“Ashton? Do you have a suggestion?”

“Well, my friend Luke plays with this other team because he’s working the times we practise, and they play on the rec behind Morrisons on Wednesdays. I know it’s probably too late to get our own slot there but Luke says they’ve lost a lot of players recently and I know we could do with a few more, so we could always join their team for practices.

There were murmurs of assent going through the group, mostly, Louis suspected, from the newer players, as the looks on Harry and Zayn’s faces merely confirmed what Louis suspected.

“Your friend plays at the rec? On Wednesdays?”

“Um, yeah. You know them?” Ashton asked. The tension was palpable as the rest of the lads turned to Louis to gauge his response. Unfortunately for Ashton, he didn’t seem to notice the uncomfortable atmosphere and blundered on regardless. “The team captain is really nice, he’s called Li…”

“WE DON’T SAY THAT NAME!” Poor Ashton, Louis would probably get told off later for shouting at the guy. By Zayn, not by Harry, since Harry didn’t do tellings off; he just pouted until someone apologised, hugged him, or gave him a banana.

“Right, it’s fine, it’s ok,” Louis said once he’d calmed down from his violent outburst. “You know, we were looking at changing venue anyway, we can just practise at the club like Harry’s stepdad suggested.”

“Um, Lou…” Harry whispered, tugging at his sleeve.

“What?”

Harry pulled Louis slightly away from the rest of the group so that no one else could hear. “You filled in the forms for that, right?”

“What forms?”

“Those forms I gave you to fill in so we could practise at the club?”

Louis had a vague recollection of Harry handing him a bunch of leaflets or something. They were probably being used as a coaster or had been chewed up by Bruce at this point.

“What? I thought those were just a formality? You said your stepdad could get us in?”

“Um, no, I said he could get us the forms, but we had to book our slot by the end of April.”

Louis stared blankly at the empty space in front of him.

“It’s May...” Harry continued.

“Yes Harry, thank you. I know that.” God, he could really do without being on the receiving end of Harry’s wounded look again today. “So what you’re saying is that we can’t play at the club.”

“Erm, no.”

“So our only option is to practise at the rec?”

“Yes.” Harry confirmed.

“With my arch nemesis?”

“Come on, Louis, don’t you think you’re being a tad dram-”

“With my _arch nemesis_ ,” he insisted, causing Harry to sigh.

“Yes, Louis, with your ‘arch nemesis’.” Harry even did the finger air quotes; slightly unnecessarily, Louis thought.

Louis growled under his breath. He might be forced to go back to that wanker but he sure as hell wasn’t going to play nice.

****

Liam arrived at the rec on Wednesday to the cheers and hugs of his teammates. _The Green Beans_ had won their match on Saturday against _Ice Cream Sundays_ and they were all still riding high on their victory.

His team weren’t used to winning all that much, at least not since _he_ had left and taken half their star players with him. Now Liam’s best player was Niall, who spent more time falling over and cackling about it for five minutes than he did actually playing. At least the new guy, Luke, seemed pretty good, although he sure did complain about the cold a lot.

Still, they must have done something right on Saturday because they wiped the floor with _Ice Cream Sundays_ , though it could have been because half of that team had the flu, Liam thought. That, and Grimshaw had distracted the best midfielder by flirting the whole match. At least those legs were good for something apart from tripping over everything. Nick was usually a permanent fixture on the subs bench as he normally did himself an injury every time he actually tried to play, but he liked heckling from the side-lines and watching guys in shorts. He was also pretty good at ‘helping’ Liam strategise, if only because he got to shorten ‘Assistant Manager’ to ‘Ass Man’. God knows how Liam ended up with such a clumsy team. It was worse when Harry was there, as he, Niall, and Grimmy would spend entire matches just tripping over each other.

Liam sighed when he thought of Harry. He still hadn’t replied to the message he’d received from him five days ago. He’d been putting it off, more than happy to have the lads back on the team, but he just wasn’t sure how he’d feel seeing Louis again. So he’d ignored Harry’s message asking if _The Real Lads_ could practise with them.

Just then, he heard a shout and looked up to see the curly lad himself running full pelt towards Niall, and Liam felt a stab of nostalgia watching the two of them grab at each other and dance around, almost knocking over Dougie who was hovering with the others, waiting to welcome Harry back to the fold. Liam saw other members of their old team start to arrive and be given the same enthusiastic greeting that had been extended to Harry. A few new faces arrived as well, although the way that Luke was hugging three guys to the left of him caused him to guess these were the mates he was always talking about.

Apparently, Liam hadn’t needed to text Harry back after all. He raised an eyebrow at Niall where he had lost Harry’s attention to the other lads. Niall just grinned and gave him a double thumbs up. Liam sighed. He knew he shouldn’t have told Niall about the message. He also should have known Harry would have gone to Niall first anyway.

Liam finally smiled as he looked round to where his old and new teammates were chatting, smiling, and greeting each other like long lost pals, though he knew for a fact that most of them still met up at the pub every Friday like they used to. Liam had stopped going right around the time the team split, for fear of running into Louis, even though Niall told him that Louis had stopped going as well.

Realizing who was missing, Liam started looking around. Everybody else was there but Louis, and Liam wondered if he was so stubborn that he’d rather lose his whole team than play nice with Liam. Who was he kidding? Louis was always one to cut his nose off to spite his face.

Liam was pulled out of his reverie by a loud cry of “Payno!” and suddenly found himself with an armful of lanky man-child and a face full of curly hair.

“Payno, I missed you so much!” Harry mumbled into Liam’s neck.

“Hi, Harry.” Liam grinned. As much as he was still hurt by Louis’ actions, he had never blamed Harry for them.

Besides, who could stay mad at that face for long?

“So you guys are back with _The Green Beans_ then?” Liam asked, when he’d finally extracted himself from a pile of gangly limbs.

“That’s ok isn’t it? Niall said it was ok. Our pitch was invaded by moles see...” Harry trailed off. Liam had read about that in the paper, and he wasn’t going to lie and say he didn’t feel a small thrill at imagining the look on Louis’ face when he discovered his beloved pitch was covered in mole hills.

“Harry, mate, I’m thrilled to have you back, we could do with some more players to be honest, glad to have you.”

Harry beamed. Liam had sort of missed him.

“Um, I can’t help but notice your illustrious leader is missing...” Liam trailed off, nervous and unsure if he was ready to see Louis again.

“Aww Leemo, did you miss me?”

Liam froze and turned around.

Louis looked the same as ever. His hair was a bit longer and he’d grown a bit of extra scruff but he had the same infuriating smirk, the same cocky stance and the same wicked glint in his eyes that used to drive Liam up the wall. Scratch that. Liam was definitely not prepared to see Louis again.

****

Louis saw Liam before Liam saw him, though it wasn’t as though Liam could see anything with six feet of curly hair and gangly limbs wrapped around him like an octopus. Louis’ pulse was doing something very complicated at seeing Liam again. He wanted to scream in rage at Liam being such an insufferable prick, he wanted to drag Harry off and yell that Harry was his friend not Liam’s, he wanted to tell Liam that his shorts looked ridiculous and his beard made him look like a mountain man, but he didn’t get the chance to do any of that because he was suddenly tackle-hugged by a cheeky blond Irishman. Louis let out an involuntary sigh of relief and relaxed into the hug.

“Hi Niall.” He couldn’t help but grin, he could never _not_ grin around Niall.

“Alright Lou, ‘bout time we saw your ugly mug ‘round here again.” Louis’ grin slipped slightly at the reminder of how long it’d been, even though he knew that Niall wasn’t one to hold a grudge. He hid his nervousness behind his usual cocky smirk.

“Wouldn’t want you to miss me too much now would I?” He looked around at all the other lads, catching up with each other or doing warm ups, full of laughter and glad to see their old mates again. His eyes caught on Liam, who had finally been let free from the clutches of Harry’s arms and was now chatting with him. Louis took in the slightly quiffed hair, more styled than when Louis had last seen him, the thick scruff layering his jaw and the way his white T shirt was even more filled out than before. Louis felt his heart sink to his toes. He shook it off, put on the cocky version of himself. Time to face the music.

****

Half an hour into the first joint _Green Beans_ / _Real Lads_ practise, they had gotten more drills done than Liam had ever managed to convince them to do and were currently drawn on their friendly practise match. Harry hadn’t tripped over his feet once and neither had Niall. In fact, both centre-backs were playing so well that neither team had yet managed to score a goal. Dougie, Danny and Tom, working as a seamless unit midfield, seemed to have renewed energy now that they were playing against their old mates. Even Grimmy was playing well and hadn’t fallen over, left the goal or stopped to do his hair once. He did seem to be a tad more focused on Harry’s legs in his tiny red shorts than he did on the game, but it was still a huge improvement.

Liam watched as James booted the ball past Grimmy and high-fived Dougie as he went racing past, even though they were on opposite teams.

“Nice one mate!” Liam heard Luke yell as cheers went up.

Liam frowned in confusion and glanced around to double-check it wasn’t Luke’s team that had scored. Liam smiled as he realized that Luke was yelling for his mates, not for his own team. He’d missed the friendlier side of _friendly_ competition.

He felt a sharp elbow to his ribs and heard,

“Excuse me Liam, I wouldn’t have thought you could afford to stand around doing nothing when your team is losing.”

Liam scowled at Louis’ retreating back. That was the only thing that was not going so well. Louis seemed to have forgotten that they were meant to be on the same team now and was doing everything in his power to wind Liam up. No changes there since they’d last been on the same side. Liam watched as Louis ran up and thumped his team mate on the back, grinning good naturedly at Luke and grabbing Niall in a headlock. He frowned as the two of them laughed and joked like they’d been hanging out this whole time instead of Louis abandoning them all for months. Apparently it was just Liam that Louis was being a dick towards.

Liam jogged over to where the ball lay forgotten in the goal celebrations, picking it up and running over to the group.

“Are we going to stand around all day or are we going to play football?” His words came out sounding slightly harsher than he had intended.

“Still as uptight as ever, I see,” Louis said, that infuriating smirk firmly in place.

“Still as childish as ever, I see,” he retorted.

The others dispersed to their places, a few coughing uncomfortably and sharing awkward glances. Liam threw the ball back to Dougie and ran off down the field.

“Amazed you can still run with that stick up your arse.”

He wasn’t quick enough to avoid hearing Louis’ shouted comeback, but then again, he never had been before.

****

Louis watched as Liam, smiling broadly, was lifted up onto his team mate’s shoulders. He should have been pleased that they had won their first match as a fully merged team, but he couldn’t shake the knot in his stomach as he watched _his_ friends laughing and joking with Liam.

The worst thing was that Liam hadn’t smiled at Louis like that in months. He was used to being able to make people laugh but Liam never seemed to get the joke; he’d just scowl at Louis and say something rude which would wind Louis up even more until they were full on arguing with each other.

Louis had spent the last three practises trying to simultaneously improve the team and sabotage Liam. It was a delicate balance that Louis believed took an awful lot of forethought and incredible cunning. Zayn, on the other hand, said that it took an awful lot of stupidity and pig headedness, but what did Zayn know? He’d missed the last practice because he’d accidentally dyed his hair orange whilst trying to add a ‘cool’ blonde streak and ended up having to shave the whole lot off. He’s the idiot, not Louis.

Louis was witty and hilarious and not at all a ‘stubborn arsehole’ which was the last thing Liam had said to him before storming off in a huff like a small child. Unfortunately this had left Louis in the unenviable position of standing in the middle of the football pitch at the end of practise with the rest of his team shaking their heads at him as if they agreed with Liam’s words.

Traitors, the lot of them.

Liam’s idea for their new kits was ridiculous and Louis was completely within his bounds to air his thoughts in a forceful manner. The lads seemed to be in a more cheerful mood now, after their win, patting him and each other on the back and celebrating their victory, so Louis guessed he was forgiven. Not by everyone, he thought, as he watched Liam disappear into the changing rooms, still chatting and laughing to Zayn and Dougie. It probably hadn’t helped that Louis had called Liam a ‘self-righteous prick’ during halftime. It was just that Liam was being so damn _infuriating_ , giving him the silent treatment like they were ten years old. Louis had never dealt well with being ignored.

The team gradually dispersed, leaving Louis with only Nick and Harry. Harry was walking the bench, picking up left-behind kit and drinks bottles whilst simultaneously flirting with Nick. He wasn’t built for multitasking, Louis thought, watching Harry drop yet another Lucozade bottle whilst giggling at something Nick had said. Louis shook his head, he’d be there all night at this rate.

“Mate, I know you and him have your differences but that was a bit much, even for you.”

Louis startled and turned to face Niall. He’d been so engrossed in watching Nick and Harry’s bizarre mating ritual that he hadn’t even noticed Niall coming back, never mind that he was stood right next to him. Louis cringed. He thought that no one else had heard his hissed insults during halftime but he should have known Liam would confide in his best friend. He’s not taking back what he said though; he meant every word.

“Yeah, I know, but he deserved it, Niall. He’s being a dick!”

“You both are. Come on Lou, you’re both acting like kids. Everyone else is getting on fine so why must you two be the only ones still getting at each other’s throats all the time? If you just apologized…”

“I’m not apologizing to that…dick!” Louis snapped. He frowned, he was usually much more creative with his insults but something about Liam made him unable to think clearly.

Niall sighed. “Why do you hate him so much?”

“Because he’s an arsehole! The whole team fell apart because of him and he just swans around like he’s the greatest thing since sliced _fucking_ bread!”

“You were the one that left, Lou.” Niall was talking calmly and rationally which only served to make Louis more enraged.

“And he let me! He let me go just like that: didn’t even ask me ‘why’ or try to get me to stay, just let me walk away like he didn’t even care, like I- like _the team_ never meant anything to him.” Louis forced himself to stop talking before more words spilled out of his mouth. He was sure his skin was flushed pink and to his horror he could feel hot tears prickling at his eyes. He refused to cry over that loser.

He heard Niall’s quiet breathing beside him but he daren’t turn his head to see Niall’s reaction to his meltdown. When Niall spoke again it was quiet, gentle as if he was trying to soothe a spooked animal.

“To be fair, Lou, you didn’t give him much of a chance, mate.”

Louis let out a deep breath and closed his eyes, desperately willing the tears not to fall.

“Have you, um, have you trying talking to him, about you know, how you feel?”

Louis scoffed. “Whenever I talk to him he just says something sarcastic or yells and storms off.”

“Mate, so do you. If you were nice to him, he’d be nice to you.”

Louis snorted; he doubted that very much.

“Just leave it, Niall, it’s not going to happen, mate, alright? I appreciate the concern but it’s a lost cause.” He saw Niall’s shoulders slump in defeat.

“Alright, at least come and have a drink with the lads yeah?”

“Will Liam be there?”

Niall rolled his eyes and Louis sighed. He should have guessed it was only a matter of time before all his mates got sick of him.

****

Halfway through the next practise, Liam had already counted three “arseholes”, two “dicks”, and four ‘accidental’ collisions. Not that Liam hadn’t been giving back as good as he’d been getting, yelling at Louis that he must need glasses if he couldn’t see Liam _right in front of him_.

“If only you spent half as long on perfecting your footwork as you did on your hair, you might be a decent footballer,” he muttered as he jogged past Louis, who was sweeping his fingers through his hair in a way that had always annoyed Liam.

Louis turned and glared at him. “At least I care about my appearance, I don’t know what that small animal attached to your face is meant to be!” Louis yelled.

Liam scowled. Louis always had to _yell_ everything; at least Liam had the decency to make sure no one else could hear the insult. He wasn’t a complete idiot, he knew the other lads were getting annoyed with his and Louis’ behaviour but he just couldn’t help himself. Louis wound him up so much. Liam jogged up to where Zayn was chugging down water on the side of the pitch.

“Mate, you know he only does it to get to you, he’s like a small child, if you ignored him...”

“Zayn, mate, I know you’re his best friend, although God knows how you manage to put up with him, but he is a total wanker and I refuse to let him win.”

Zayn shook his head.

“Mate, you _are_ letting him win. He loves the fight more than anything.”

Liam gritted his teeth as he suddenly felt cold water hit the back of his neck. No points for guessing where that came from. Liam turned to yell back at Louis, pretending he didn’t notice Zayn’s long-suffering sigh and exaggerated eye roll.

Zayn was just as dramatic as Louis, no wonder those two were best friends, Liam thought.

****

Niall pushed through the crowded pub, battling his way past drunk students and the post-work Friday crowd trying not to spill the four pint glasses he had balanced in his hands. He got to the table where Luke and Ashton were having a beer mat flipping contest and Zayn was pretending to be interested in a story Harry was telling about some woman whom he’d seen walking along the road with a hole in her shopping bag dropping potatoes everywhere.

Unlike Zayn, Grimmy seemed to be finding this story hilarious. Niall grinned and added the pints in his hands to the collection of drinks on the table.

“Payno not coming then?” Niall said, even though he knew the answer. Liam had been better lately at hanging with the team outside of practises but he was still cautious of anything he thought Louis might also be attending.

Harry shook his head, seemingly finished with his potato story. 

“I tried to get Lou to come but he wouldn’t.”

Zayn snorted and Harry frowned at him.

“Like Lou would come if he thought there was even a _chance_ that Liam might show up. Those two are completely ridiculous,” Zayn explained.

“I know!” Niall said, sliding onto the bench next to Zayn, making Harry have the need to squeeze up close to Grimmy, which he didn’t seem to mind at all. “I tried to talk to Lou about it the other day but…Zayn, mate, was there ever, you know, anything going on between those two? I got the impression there was more to it but Lou got proper upset when I tried to ask him.”

“I knew it!” Harry said so suddenly that Grimmy got a mouthful of hair when Harry suddenly jolted up. “I knew Lou had a crush on Liam from the beginning but he would never talk about it and then he just lost it that one day.”

“I reckon Liam really liked Lou before, too,” Niall said. “I think that was why he was so crushed when Lou started being mean to him.”

“That was Lou pulling pigtails, he always does this when he really likes someone, especially if he thinks they won’t like him back. He’s just like a little kid.” Zayn rolled his eyes, speaking with the resigned air of someone who had been best friends with Louis Tomlinson for too many years.

“Honestly, those two are as bad as each other,” Grimmy said, although as he and Harry had done nothing but giggle and preen at each other the whole time they had been there, Niall thought he was hardly one to talk.

“Maybe we can do something about it,” Luke suddenly piped up.

Niall hadn’t even realised that Ashton and Luke had been listening to the conversation. He turned towards them with interest.

“What do you have in mind?”

“Well, you said that Liam is only mean to Louis because he thinks Lou doesn’t like him, yeah?” Luke asked, Niall nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, I mean, Payno loves everyone, he hates it when he thinks people don’t like him.” Niall remembers Liam trying so hard to get Louis to like him when they first met, Niall thinks that’s the reason why he acted so mean to Louis now, like he’s punishing him for not wanting to immediately be best friends.

“Well, what if we made Payno think that Louis _does_ like him.”

“Which we know he does, he’s just being stubborn,” Zayn added.

“Exactly, so it shouldn’t be that hard to convince Liam that Lou actually has a crush on him,” Luke said.

“And then we need to just convince Louis that Liam likes him back and hey presto!” Added Ashton, obviously sensing where Luke’s plan was going.

“You mean…we’re going to incept them into liking each other?” asked Niall, intrigued by this plan.

“Espionage! Drama! Romance! I love it!” declared Harry, throwing his arms up and almost knocking his pint over in his excitement. Grimmy grinned at him.

“You know lads, this might just work,” said Zayn and everyone nodded in agreement.

“Let’s make a plan,” Niall said, grinning. He had a good feeling about this.

****

Liam arrived early at the rec on Wednesday. So early, that a couple of the players from _The Sirens_ , the girls’ team that practised at the rec the slot before _The Green Beans_ , were still hanging around. Zayn was there already, helping his girlfriend Perrie load up the sound system and carry it back to her car. Apparently the girls couldn’t practise without music.

It wasn’t a bad idea, Liam would even suggest it to Louis if he didn’t know he’d be shot down immediately. Perhaps he’d better get Harry to suggest it instead. Though he and Louis were technically meant to be co-captains, Louis refused to have any reasonable conversation with him, and any and all discussions had to be made through an intermediary. Liam rolled his eyes; he’d spent far too much time and energy thinking about Louis lately.

He started over to where Perrie and Zayn were chatting. They were so engrossed in each other that they didn’t even seem to notice him jogging over and he caught the tail end of their conversation.

“It’s kind of cute though isn’t it?” he heard Perrie say. “It’s like at primary school when the boys would chase the girls and pull their pigtails because they couldn’t work out how to say they liked them.”

Liam wondered who they were talking about. Before he could ask though, Zayn spotted him and called out an overly bright, “alright, Liam?” Perrie immediately stopped talking and turned to smile at Liam.

“Oh hi, Liam, didn’t see you there.” Liam narrowed his eyes, they were acting weird. Perrie suddenly declared she had to go, picking up the rest of her stuff and giving Zayn a quick peck on the cheek before making her way across the field to her car. Liam watched her go with a frown. What on earth was that all about?

“Everything alright?” Liam asked Zayn.

“Hm? Oh yeah fine.” Zayn replied, casually. “Oh, damn. Pez left her phone, would you mind running it to her before she goes as I’ve got to go to the loo, thanks mate.” Zayn handed Liam Perrie’s phone and left.

Liam frowned in confusion at Zayn’s retreating back and made a mental note to ask Harry later on if everything was okay with Zayn and Perrie.

Liam realised that he couldn’t waste time thinking about Zayn’s odd behaviour if he was to get Perrie her phone back in time and dashed across the field towards the car park. He was relieved when he got there to find that Perrie was still there, stood by her car chatting to her teammate, and Niall’s girlfriend, Jade.

“Zayn reckons he’s got a massive crush on Liam and that’s why he’s so mean to him. It’s kind of cute, really,” he heard Perrie say.

Liam froze in his tracks. He was pretty sure he wasn’t meant to be listening to this. Obviously the girls hadn’t heard him approach and they couldn’t see him from where he was standing on the other side of the car. He probably should make them aware of his presence instead of standing there like some eavesdropping weirdo but he couldn’t seem to make himself move. He couldn’t quite understand what they were saying. Someone had a crush on _him_?

“It’s so obvious really,” he heard Jade reply. “I mean, Niall said that Liam is all Louis will talk about and Liam actually thinks Louis doesn’t even like him! Honestly, boys are so stupid.”

Liam tuned out the rest of their conversation as he thought about what he’d heard. _Louis_ was the one who had a crush on him? But he was so mean all the time. Once the thought sank in, though, it actually started to make sense. Liam was the only one that Louis acted like that around. And he supposed that half the things Louis said could probably be taken as teasing rather than really being mean.

Liam started to feel bad. What if Louis had feelings for Liam this whole time and Liam had been nothing but horrible to him? He figured he could stand to be a bit nicer to Louis. After all, it must really suck to have feelings for someone who wasn’t even nice to you. Liam refused to admit that he knew how that felt.

“There you are, mate. Did you give Pez her phone back?” Zayn’s sudden presence pulled Liam abruptly out of his reverie. He must have been standing there so long that he hadn’t even noticed Perrie and Jade driving off. He looked down at his hand and realised he was still clutching Perrie’s phone uselessly.

“Um, no, she’d left already.” Liam stuttered out.

“Alright well, never mind, I’ll give it to her later. Come on, team’s here.”

Liam did a double take at the car park, realising that there were indeed more cars there than there were before. He wondered how long he had been standing there like an idiot wondering about Louis’ feelings. He hoped none of the team had seen him.

****

“Hi Lou.”

Louis looked around to see Liam stood there nervously. Louis narrowed his eyes.

“Um, hi?” Louis asked, suspicious. It was highly unusual for Liam to approach Louis at all, never mind to actually say hi to him, instead of to yell at him about something.

“Just thought we could maybe go through some tactics? Like that one you suggested last week, that um, was quite good and maybe you have some other suggestions, like?” Liam was scratching his head and shuffling his feet awkwardly.

Louis raised one eyebrow. “You ok, mate?” Maybe Liam was ill.

Liam flushed a brilliant shade of pink. Definitely ill.

“Um yeah, fine” Liam stammered, “got to go, you know, practise! And…stuff.” Liam jogged off and Louis stood there feeling very confused. That was very weird.

Things carried on in a similar vein for the rest of practice. Liam would say something vaguely complimentary to Louis and would act very awkward when Louis tried to reply. He was making it hard for Louis to employ his usual level of snark.

By the end of practice Liam had smiled at him three times in response to Louis’ comments instead of snapping back something mean and Louis was starting to feel like something was going on.

“Haz, what’s up with Liam?” he asked, catching up with Harry at the end of practice.

“What do you mean?” Harry was tying his shoelaces for the fourth time.

“He’s being _nice_.” Louis spat it out like it was a dirty word.

“Well, it’s Liam, he’s nice to everyone.” Harry shrugged nonchalantly.

“He’s not nice to _me_.”

Harry straightened up and pulled Louis off to the side of the pitch and away from the others, who were chatting and starting to get their things together to go home. Harry leaned in as if he was going to tell Louis a secret.

“Niall made me promise not to say anything, so you didn’t hear this from me, okay?” he whispered.

“Okay…” said Louis hesitantly.

“I don’t know if this is true, but _Niall_ thinks Liam has a crush on you.”

Louis stared blankly at Harry, blinking. “Huh?”

Harry chuckled. “I know, it sounds odd but that’s what Niall says, and he is Liam’s best friend. Also, don’t say anything about this either but I overheard Ashton and Luke talking about it the other day, I think they’re taking bets on when you two will get together.”

“What!” Louis cried, outraged, before Harry shushed him. “Me and _Liam_?”

“I know, it’s so ridiculous!” agreed Harry, “I mean, he’s your ‘arch-nemesis’, you hate him right?”

Louis frowned. It wasn’t that he _hated_ Liam exactly, and he guessed that Liam had been making an effort today, had been downright sweet in fact. Maybe Niall had a point. Perhaps that was why Liam had been blushing and stammering, maybe he really did have a crush on Louis.

“Anyway,” Harry interjected, “it’s probably nothing, I wouldn’t worry too much about it,” and he took off across the rec to the car park, leaving Louis alone with his thoughts.

Maybe he could try being a little bit nicer to Liam. Like, maybe he would stop shouting at him. He didn’t think he could stop himself from winding him up entirely but at least he could maybe smile at him so he knew Louis was only joking. He was only ever joking really though, but Liam never seemed to understand that. Louis wasn’t completely awful, he didn’t want to break Liam’s heart or anything, so he guessed he could play nice for a while.

****

Liam excused himself to the toilets and splashed his face with water. His cheeks were still bright red. God he was such an idiot. He gripped onto the sink and thunked his head gently against the mirror. He was only trying to have a casual conversation with Louis like any normal person would and he couldn’t even manage to do that without blushing and stammering all over the place. Louis probably thought he was more of a moron than he did before.

It didn’t help that Louis had started actually talking back to him and _smiling_. Liam was still unsure if it was all some big joke but everyone seemed to genuinely think that Louis actually liked him, and he _had_ been kind of flirty lately. Liam let out a deep breath and straightened up. He’d better get back out there before everybody wondered where he was. He’d kind of taken off when Louis had wolf-whistled at him and shouted “looking good, Payno!” All because his shorts had gotten mangled in the tumble dryer and he’d been forced to borrow Harry’s too-short red ones, which seemed to now be the same shade as his face.

Liam went back out to join the team, but the players were all stood around Louis, who seemed to be holding court with everyone’s full attention on him. Liam could hardly blame them; Louis was in his element like this, fully-animated and gesturing with his hands as he told some funny story, his eyes lit up with a big grin. That was something Liam had noticed lately about Louis, when he smiled, it completely transformed his entire face. He watched as Louis threw his head back, laughing, and Liam’s breath caught in his throat.

Liam snapped himself back to reality and jogged over to the group, positioning himself next to Louis and forcing himself to drop a casual arm onto his back.

“Alright lads?” he asked, desperately trying to cover up his nerves at being so close to Louis. Louis turned towards him and Liam had felt breathless before from watching Louis at a distance, but it was nothing compared to having that smile turned directly on him. Liam felt like he was staring at the sun; if he looked for too long, he’d go blind.

Luckily, Zayn rescued him from impending sightlessness.

“Are we playing footie or what!?” Bless Zayn.

_****_

The following Saturday, _The Green Beans_ had a match with a team the next town over. It was only a forty minute drive or so but they had decided to hire a minibus and driver to take the team there and back. Well, more like Liam had decided, since he was the organized one. Louis _had_ agreed, though, knowing that if the others were left to get there on their own, someone was bound to get lost or end up in the wrong town entirely.

Louis showed up to the rec car park bright and early Saturday morning to find Liam already there, organising water bottles and various snacks into brown paper bags. Louis barely managed to keep the fond grin from bursting onto his face.

“Leemo, did you actually make packed lunches for everyone?” Louis asked, incredulous.

Liam looked up and blushed. Louis had never realized before quite how easy it was to make Liam blush. Louis was struggling not to admit to himself that it was a much nicer feeling to make Liam blush than it was to make him yell.

“Well, we had some money left over from the coach fund and I thought everyone would like snacks,” Liam mumbled before pointing Louis towards a crate of oranges and shoving a load of paper bags at his feet.

“Here, sort these into bags would you,” he told Louis, picking up a clipboard from another bag and ticking off Louis’ name from a list.

“Holy crap, you have an actual clipboard.” Louis grinned gleefully. “This is amazing.”

Liam flushed an impossibly deeper shade of red.

“I just wanted to be organised!” he protested. “Like you’re doing anything helpful.”

“I’m helpful.” Louis said, putting his hands on his hips and acting mock-offended. “I am _so_ helpful, I got here early didn’t I?”

“Yeah, to make fun of me,” Liam grumbled, and Louis refused to think of Liam’s pout as adorable.

“Excuse _me_ , Liam. I am doing the very important job of sorting these oranges,” Louis said, picking up three of the said oranges and attempting to juggle them. Unfortunately his juggling skills were not on par with his footie skills and one of them slipped out of his hand and rolled into a nearby puddle.

“Man overboard!” Louis yelled and dropped the other two oranges back into the box.

“Louis, you weren’t _concentrating_ ,” Liam said, emphasizing his last word. It took a beat before Louis got the joke and he shook his head at Liam when he did.

“Liam, that was terrible, that was worse than one of Harry’s,” he said, poking Liam in the side.

“Noooo…” Liam protested, squirming away from Louis’ wriggling fingers and giggling his head off. Louis couldn’t keep the grin off his face, it had been a long time since he’d made Liam laugh like that.

“What’s up lads!” Niall’s voice broke the moment and Louis turned to greet the new arrival as Liam attempted to reorganise the boxes that Louis had messed up.

The others drifted in one by one and, when the minibus arrived Liam stood by the door, looking official with his clipboard in hand, counting them as they climbed onto the bus. Louis stayed behind to help the driver load the boxes on, and also to mock Liam’s clipboard some more.

“Alright lads!” Louis yelled when he finally climbed aboard. The whole team cheered.

The only seats left were two together at the very front of the bus, directly behind the driver’s seat. He fidgeted nervously, waiting for Liam to get on and realise that he was going to have to sit next to Louis for 45 minutes.

When Liam did finally climb aboard, though, he just flopped down next to Louis and stashed his clipboard in the back of the seat in front of him.

“Alright drive,” he said, leaning forward in his seat to let the driver know they were ready to leave. A cheer went up as the engine came to life and the minibus began to roll out of the rec car park. Louis looked out of the window as they left, grinning when he saw one lonely orange, still sat abandoned in a puddle in the car park.

****

Liam counted everyone back onto the bus after another win with a sigh of relief. It wasn’t that he was expecting anyone to get lost or disappear, it was just, you never knew with this lot. He was proud of them, though. They may just be an amateur team playing for fun, but they had really smashed it. Liam tried to wipe the grin of pride from his face, as Louis would almost certainly mock him for it. If Louis was even still awake, that is. When Liam had seen him drag himself onto the bus, he looked half asleep. It was hardly surprising; he’d ran around that pitch like a man possessed.

The team had gone for a late lunch afterwards, which had turned into a few pints, which had then turned into a full-on celebration and now most of the team was looking a little worse for wear. Liam was glad they had booked the van and driver for the whole day.

Liam checked his clipboard a final time before climbing on board the bus. He looked around at his team. Zayn was already asleep, head phones firmly on, head resting against the window. Niall was twisted round in his seat, chatting quietly to Ashton and Luke, and Harry and Grimmy were curled into each other, giggling at something on Harry’s phone. Everyone else was dozing or listening to music. Liam smiled, he really loved his team. He wouldn’t admit it under pain of death, but he was secretly glad that Louis had decided to join the team again, even if he did do it under duress at first.

He turned to the driver and gave him a thumbs up. As he went to sit down, he found that Louis had flopped himself across both seats, seemingly asleep. Liam smiled fondly and bent down to gently shake Louis.

“Hey, Lou,” he whispered. Louis grumbled quietly and shifted slightly but made no move to sit up. Liam sighed and rolled his eyes. He carefully slid his hands under Louis’ shoulders and lifted him up just enough to slide into his seat, then gently let Louis’ head flop down onto his shoulder. Liam let his head fall back onto his headrest and closed his eyes, enjoying the gentle weight of Louis resting against him. He started to hum quietly to himself, words floating to his mind as he fell asleep, thinking of sea-blue eyes and teasing smiles.

When he woke up, the bus was pulling to a stop and the sun had finally sunk. He blinked his eyes open to see Louis watching him.

“Morning, sleeping beauty,” Louis said, a soft smile on his lips.

“Hey, you’re the one that fell asleep on me,” Liam complained. “You didn’t drool on me did you?” he asked, checking his shoulder for damp patches and smirking at Louis all the while.

“No, Payno, I didn’t drool on you. Though I do vaguely remember you singing me a lullaby,” Louis shot back.

Liam blushed. “That wasn’t…” he noticed Louis’ teasing grin, “shut up, you,” he grumbled, digging his elbow into Louis’ ribs, causing him to giggle and squirm.

When Liam got home that night, he pulled out a black notebook that Niall had got him the Christmas before. It was meant to be for lyrics and ideas, but he hadn’t ever felt particularly inspired, so the book had remained empty. Now though, Liam suddenly found the words flowing and he scribbled them down in his notebook furiously. He finally fell asleep at three am, pages full of lyrics.

****

“Tommo!”

As soon as Louis stepped foot inside the busy pub he heard Niall’s raucous cry, even above the din of the Friday-night crowd. As he stepped towards the lads’ table he was greeted with back slaps and people pleased to see him.

“Glad to see yer mate,” Niall said as Louis slipped into the booth, gratefully taking the pint that Zayn handed him as he returned fresh from the bar.

“Yeah, well, couldn’t get enough of your ugly mugs.” Louis smirked, taking a sip of his beer. It felt good to be back with the lads again, and, now he and Liam were back on friendly terms, there hadn’t seemed to be any excuses for not hanging out with his favourite people.

“Speaking of ugly mugs,” Niall started, giggling at his own joke before he’d even gotten to the punch line, “Payno said he’d be out tonight as well, so we’ll have a proper reunion, like.”

Louis smiled. He’d be lying to himself if he said he hadn’t been hoping that Liam would show up.

“Niall, we see each other every week, it’s hardly a reunion.”

“Yeah but, since you’re friends now, we can all hang out proper, like.” Niall grinned, and Louis immediately felt guilty about making his friends feel like they couldn’t act normally around each other. He soon forgot about it though, when Harry sauntered over, swinging an arm around Louis’ shoulders and demanding they all have shots.

By the time Liam arrived at the pub, Louis was already halfway through his second pint and trying to refuse a third shot from Harry. Thankfully Liam’s presence distracted Harry from his mission.

“Liam’s here!” Harry cried, almost spilling the contents of his glass as he waved his arms in the air in his attempts to get to Liam and hug him. Louis caught Liam’s eye over Harry’s shoulder and they shared a ‘yep he’s an idiot, but he’s our idiot’ look. At least that’s what Louis assumed the look meant. He was still new to sharing looks with Liam that didn’t come with daggers and he was never sure if he was misreading their intention.

“Liam will have the shot, won’t you Liam?” Harry pouted, shoving the shot that was intended for Louis towards Liam instead.

“Um, sure, why not?” Liam said, taking the shot with a shy smile and downing it in one go.

Louis couldn’t even pretend not to stare as he watched Liam tip his head back to take the shot, the line of his throat long as he swallowed. Liam set the glass on the table and Louis swore the whole pub could have gone up in flames at that moment and he wouldn’t have noticed a thing, as transfixed as he was by the way Liam’s tongue was licking up the stray drops of tequila from his lips. Lips that Louis had definitely not spent any time thinking about, no way.

With great effort, Louis tore his eyes away and grabbed his beer, downing the rest of the pint and slamming the empty glass back down on the table. Perhaps he should have accepted that shot after all and maybe it would have saved him from filing away the memory of seeing Liam take it in his place.

An hour later and Louis had more than caught up with Harry. He could admit that it might have been a bit of a mistake to drink every time Liam did something attractive. A big mistake. Louis may have slightly underestimated quite how often that would be and now he was more than a bit drunk.

He managed to get himself to the loos without too much trouble and propped himself up against the sinks after washing his hands. It’s just Liam was so _there_ , smiling his stupid smile and laughing his stupid laugh and making Louis feel things he had no right to. He pulled out his mobile to check the time, seeing the last texts he’d received were from Zayn earlier in the day. Louis was sure Zayn had been laughing at him.

Stupid Zayn.

Just then, his phone buzzed in his hands with a text from Zayn himself.

**Oi!**

Louis stared at the text in confusion before realising that he had texted Zayn, calling him stupid rather than just thinking it.

**You were laffing at meeee you prick** he typed back. It took him a while to get anywhere approximating the correct spelling. By the time he managed to stand himself up without using the wall for support he’d already got a reply from Zayn.

**Aw Lou, you’re just so cute when you’re flustered. Where are you anyway?**

It took him another approximate lifetime to type out **He’s just so gorgeous, Z! How am I supposed to deal with that? I think I love him.**

He was just convincing himself to head back out when: “Mate, thought I might find you in here.” And that was Zayn, real Zayn, not text message Zayn. Louis blinked a bit until he could see him clearly in the shoddy lighting.

“Zayn, why does he have to be so fit? And funny? And lovely, Zayn, why?”

Zayn shook his head, though it looked like he was trying hard not to laugh, the bastard.

“Wow, you really have got it bad. Come on, let’s get you home.” Louis let Zayn lead him out of the toilets and put him in a taxi.

****

Liam dragged himself out of bed the next morning, forcing himself to take a hot shower and put clean clothes on, despite his persistent headache. He brushed his teeth and took a couple of pills.

_The Green Beans_ had another match today and, although it wasn’t as big a deal as the last one and they didn’t have to go anywhere other than the rec for it, Liam would still prefer not to play feeling like death warmed over. It probably served him right for drinking the night before a match, though he figured he couldn’t possibly be feeling as bad as Louis had to be right now. Liam chuckled when he remembered how drunk Louis had been the night before. It said something that he was still thinking about how cute and funny Louis had been, even three sheets to the wind. Normally Liam found it annoying when his friends got that drunk.

Amazingly, when Liam saw Louis at the rec, he seemed right as rain.

“Morning Leemo!” he shouted, leaping out of Zayn’s car and going over to fist-bump Liam. Liam frowned.

“How the hell are you so cheerful?” Liam grumbled, “I feel like death warmed over and I didn’t drink half as much as you.”

“It’s my natural charisma, Payno.” Louis grinned and took off to warm up with the others.

Despite originally feeling like he could puke at any given moment, Liam actually perked up as the match wore on. It helped that Louis kept smiling at him and stopping to check he was okay. It was uncharacteristically sweet of him, but Liam wasn’t going to complain. Especially when, in halftime, Louis jogged over and gave Liam a bottle of Lucozade, a cereal bar and two ibuprofen.

“You’re an absolute _godsend_ ” Liam said, accepting the items gratefully and immediately gulping down half the drink and the pills.

Louis’ gifts obviously did the trick because the team absolutely smashed the second half. Liam’s hangover had gone completely and he and Louis were in perfect synch.

They were in extra time when Liam dribbled the ball through the opposing midfielders, chipping it spectacularly into the upper-right corner of the goal as the keeper lunged left, breaking the match’s tie. He tried to not let himself get too happy, having lost track of the amount of stoppage time left and knowing there was always a chance the other team could answer, but then the ref blew his whistle, the game was over, and their team had won.

Before he knew it, he had an armful of one Louis Tomlinson.

“Yeah, Payno!” Louis cheered, wrapping one leg around Liam’s waist, practically climbing him and forcing Liam to wrap both arms around Louis to prevent them both from toppling over. “That goal was sick!” Louis praised, laughing right into Liam’s ear and Liam’s heart rate jumped up dramatically.

Liam heard their team mates gather round, all cheering Liam and hugging each other.

“See, you guys do love each other,” Liam heard Niall say.

“Yeah mates, hey Ash you owe me 20 quid,” Luke said, laughing.

Louis extracted himself from Liam’s arms and Liam felt strangely bereft.

“It’s not like that,” Louis said, laughing off the comment.

“No,” Liam agreed, flustered by being put on the spot. “We’re not like, together or anything, we only just tolerate each other!” He laughed, trying to make it sound like a joke but even to his own ears it sounded forced.

“Oh really?” Niall chimed in. “If you don’t like him, Leemo, how come I found this in your sports bag.” Liam whirled around and his eyes widened in horror when he saw Niall clutching his lyric book.

“Why were you going through my bag?”

“You told me to get your iPod, remember? This fell open and I couldn’t help but notice the subject sounded familiar.”

Oh no, he wasn’t going to…

“ _Sea-blue eyes and a wicked smile,_ eh? Remind you of anyone?”

Apparently he was going to. Shit.

“Who’s been driving you crazy that you ‘ _hate to love’_?” Oh God, he was still going. “I wonder who this could be about.” Niall was grinning, his eyes bright with amusement, Liam was going to kill him.

“Aw Leemo, you do love me!” Louis cried, and Liam wished the ground would swallow him up, even as Louis was smiling at him kindly. He looked for a trace of mocking or pity in his eyes but he couldn’t find any.

“Ehem,” Liam heard Zayn clear his throat behind them and turned to look to see him with his phone in hand, looking like he was about to read something out. Louis’ eyes widened and he lunged at Zayn, attempting to knock the phone out of his hand but he was too late, Zayn was already reading something out.

“ _He’s just so gorgeous, Z! How am I supposed to deal with that? I think I love him_.”

“You bastard!” Louis shrieked, but he was still smiling so Liam figured he wasn’t all that mad. He recovered quickly, turning back to Liam.

“I guess we can’t argue with the evidence,” Louis said shrugging nonchalantly and shuffling his feet nervously. The hesitation was so unlike him that Liam just _had_ to be holding him immediately, and he stepped forward to sweep Louis back into his arms, where he belonged.

“I really, really like you, Lou,” he whispered to Louis as he held him tight, sure the others couldn’t hear.

“Yeah?” Louis whispered back, pulling back to look at Liam. “I really, really like you too, Liam.”

Liam grinned so hard that he was afraid it was going to split his face open. He was fortunately saved from that terrible fate by Louis leaning in and kissing the smile right off his face. He pulled Louis impossibly closer and melted into the kiss, as the catcalls and cheers of their teammates sounded in the background.

****

“You’ll love it, chief,” Louis could hear Niall saying as he pushed through the gate to the rec. “The lads are great.”

“Yeah, we don’t bite,” Harry was adding, “well, Liam and Lou might, but only each other.”

Louis smirked to himself and his hand flew automatically to the spot on his neck where Liam had left a particularly large love bite the night before. Possessive bastard.

He rounded the corner to see Harry and Niall chatting to someone he’d never seen before. He guessed this must be the new guy Niall was talking about, one of his Irish friends who had to give up rugby because of an injury. The guy was huge though, at least twice the size of Niall, might be good for intimidating their opponents, Louis thought. He wouldn’t ever be a sprinter, but Niall seemed to think he’d be good in goal.

“Alright, mate,” Louis said, approaching the new guy and sticking out his hand, “I’m Louis, co-captain.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Bressie.” The guy shook his hand.

Louis spotted Liam entering the rec, loaded up with bags. Louis grinned.

“That’s Liam,” he explained, “I’m just going to go help him.” Louis jogged over towards where Liam was struggling with all his stuff.

“Oh sure, ‘help’,” he heard Niall call after him followed immediately by Harry’s cackle. Idiots.

“Here, let me,” Louis said, taking one of the bags from Liam’s hands.

“Thanks, babe,” Liam said, grinning.

They got to the pitch and dumped the bags next to the goal. Most of the others had arrived by now and were warming up or chatting about a match on TV.

Liam pressed two careful fingers against the mark on Louis’ throat. Louis hissed in pain.

“Careful, Liam,” Louis snapped.

“Sorry.” Liam brushed his thumb against the mark, softer this time. “Didn’t realise I’d marked you up so bad.”

“Yes you did,” Louis stepped closer to Liam, resting his hands on Liam’s shoulders and leaning towards him.

Liam smirked, raising his eyebrows. “What’re you going to do about it?”

Never one to resist a challenge, Louis grabbed the front of Liam’s shirt and pulled him closer. “This,” he whispered, closing the gap between them and crushing his mouth to Liam’s.

“Oi! Get a room!” Niall’s shout interrupted their kiss and they pulled apart, giggling.

“I love you, Tommo,” Liam said, reaching to brush Louis’ hair out of his eyes.

Louis smiled fondly, “love you too, you big idiot, now let’s go play some football!”


End file.
